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I flew to Nepal last week to deliver an invited talk on “low back pain- update” at Nepal Physiotherapy Association Conference (NEPTACON 2018). I received an overwhelming response: houseful presence, many questions, request to conduct longer sessions demonstrating how to educate/reassure patients with low back pain. Although I requested for an hour session, due to […]

Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common musculoskeletal problem encountered by a clinician. For the purpose of screening and diagnosis of LBP, a diagnosis triage has been proposed for patients when first presenting to a clinician. The goal of diagnostic triage is to exclude non-spinal causes of back pain and to allocate […]

Research publication is a requirement for many reasons. For example, academicians need it for promotion, and or to maintain academic position such as Professorship; and researchers need it to demonstrate research and publication skills, which helps in securing grants. Similarly, students need it to secure a scholarship, and improve track record for career growth. But, […]

Pilot-testing and field testing sound similar and many recall both to be the same and use them interchangeably. However, there are distinct differences between the two. Pilot-testing is a qualitative inquiry on one or more small sample(s) representative of the population. Field testing on the other hand is a quantitative analysis done on a large […]

Patient Specific Functional Scale (PSFS) is one of the most frequently used outcome measures to assess physical function in individuals with musculoskeletal pain conditions. It is an easy to use measure because it only asks patients three to five items that they find difficulty doing on a scale of 0 to 10. As patients choose […]

Pain rating scales Different measures exist to assess intensity of pain which are suited for different individuals based on age, education and culture. Read this previous blog on different measures for assessment of pain intensities. They are translated and adapted to assess pain intensity in Nepalese with pain. Numerical Pain Rating Scales are among the […]

Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is a common condition of the knee that is characterized by the pain behind and around the patella. It is present in 7 – 28% of population and is slightly more common in women. As different researchers define the condition differently in their research, so do the clinicians. This results in difference […]

Outcome measures are really important aspects of any practices in health care system. For example, vital signs are routinely assessed in patients admitted in hospital; e.g., temperature, respiratory rate, pulse rate and blood pressure. These are very important to assess the condition of a patient and now is an established rule. Prognosis of the patient […]

Discussion generally summarizes the main findings of the current research work and compares and contrasts with the previous work and finally explains the clinical implication of the current work with the limitations the current work had. Discussion section of a scientific paper can be compared with a closing argument during a legal case discussion in […]

Low back pain (LBP) is a heterogeneous disorder including patients with dominant nociceptive (e.g., myofascial LBP), neuropathic (e.g., lumbar radiculopathy), and central sensitization pain [1]. Nociceptive pain is defined as “pain arising from actual or threatening damage to non-neural tissue and is due to the activation of nociceptors, or as pain attributable to the activation […]